Chapter 6
Rachel struck me before anyone could stop her.
Her palm hit my face.
“You used us as bait!”
“I didn’t know this would happen.”
“You leaked the story about the flash drive.”
“To draw him away from you.”
“And he came here instead.”
She pushed me again.
“Where is my son?”
Officers moved between us.
I told them to step back.
Rachel’s anger belonged to me.
I had believed I could predict Travis.
I had been wrong.
“I’ll find him,” I said.
“You promised he was safe.”
“I know.”
“You promised.”
Her voice broke.
Donna reached for her.
Rachel pulled away.
“No one touches me.”
Elena arrived within minutes.
Her phone and radio had both lost service at the same time.
A portable signal jammer was discovered in a trash can near the safe house.
The two guards remembered smelling smoke.
Someone had pushed a chemical canister through a side vent.
They became disoriented.
By the time the alarm sounded, Mason was gone.
Security footage showed a person in an emergency medical uniform carrying him through the rear door.
The person wore a face shield.
But the walk was unmistakable.
Travis.
A stolen ambulance was found four miles away.
Inside was Mason’s blanket.
Nothing else.
Rachel tried to run toward it.
I held her back.
“Let me go!”
“He isn’t there.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Travis wants us moving. He wants us panicking.”
“I am panicking!”
“So am I.”
She looked at my uniform.
“No, you’re being a police officer.”
The words hurt because they were true.
I had hidden inside training and procedure because the alternative was admitting that my eight-year-old nephew was alone with a dangerous man.
Elena ordered me away from the active search.
“You’re emotionally involved.”
“He’s my family.”
“That is exactly why.”
“You need every officer.”
“I need officers who follow commands.”
“I can follow commands.”
“You chased a suspect into an alley without backup tonight.”
“He attacked Daniel.”
“And you did exactly what Travis expected.”
I removed my badge and placed it on the hood of her car.
“Then I’m not acting as an officer.”
Elena stared at me.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking emergency leave.”
“That does not make you a private investigator.”
“No. It makes me Mason’s aunt.”
Sergeant Collins picked up my badge.
“You’re still bound by the law.”
“I know.”
“If you interfere, I’ll arrest you myself.”
“I know.”
Rachel watched us.
Then she entered the stolen ambulance.
She sat where Mason’s blanket had been found and began searching beneath the seats.
A crime-scene technician told her to stop.
Rachel ignored him.
Suddenly, she reached into a tear in the seat cushion.
She pulled out the silver key.
“Mason left this.”
Elena took it carefully.
A strand of red thread was tied around the end.
Rachel began crying.
“When he was little, I taught him to leave a red thread if he ever got lost.”
I remembered.
Rachel used to sew red labels inside his jackets.
Mason had not simply dropped the key.
He had marked a trail.
Officers searched the ambulance again.
They found a second piece of thread near the rear latch.
Outside, a police dog followed Travis’s scent to an alley.
There, officers found tire tracks from a pickup truck.
The tread pattern matched a model used by Mercer Construction.
Federal agents located twelve company vehicles.
Eleven were accounted for.
The missing truck belonged to Aaron Voss.
Voss was still in custody.
Someone else had taken it.
At dawn, my temporary phone rang.
The caller was Rachel’s number.
She was standing beside me.
I answered.
“Mason?”
A distorted voice replied.
“Bring Ben’s flash drive to the Riverside project.”
“Let me speak to him.”
“Come alone.”
“If I don’t hear Mason, you get nothing.”
Silence followed.
Then Mason’s frightened voice came through.
“Aunt Emily?”
“I’m here.”
“Mom told me to be brave.”
“You are brave. Where are you?”
The phone was pulled away.
The distorted voice returned.
“Riverside. Noon. No police.”
The call ended.
Elena had recorded it.
Technicians traced it to a disposable phone moving near downtown.
The Riverside project was an unfinished government office complex beside the Cumberland River.
Ben had worked there before his death.
The project had been abandoned after inspectors discovered foundation problems.
Travis had chosen it for a reason.
“He wants the original files,” Elena said.
“He believes I have them.”
“We’ll prepare a controlled exchange.”
“No.”
Everyone turned toward Rachel.
“He asked for Emily alone because he knows you’ll send officers around her.”
“That’s why we plan carefully,” Elena replied.
Rachel held the silver key.
“Mason left us a trail. He expects us to understand.”
She examined the red thread.
Tiny knots had been tied along it.
Three close together.
Then two.
Then one.
Rachel’s breath caught.
“He’s using Ben’s code.”
“What code?” I asked.
“Ben taught him numbers with knots. Three-two-one means Building Three, second floor, room one.”
The Riverside complex had four buildings.
Travis had told me to meet him at the project entrance.
But Mason was telling us where he was actually being held.
Elena deployed tactical officers before noon.
They entered Building Three from the river side.
Room one on the second floor was empty.
On the wall, someone had drawn a red arrow.
It pointed downward.
Officers followed it into the basement.
They found another strip of thread tied to a pipe.
Then the trail ended beside a maintenance tunnel.
The tunnel ran beneath the entire complex.
Travis had moved Mason again.
At eleven forty-five, I approached the main entrance carrying a duplicate flash drive.
A microphone was hidden beneath my shirt.
Elena and tactical officers watched from concealed positions.
Rachel had been ordered to remain in a command vehicle.
I knew she would not obey.
Travis stepped from behind a concrete pillar.
He held a phone in one hand.
No weapon was visible.
“Where is Mason?”
“Where are my files?”
“Safe.”
He laughed.
“You always were a terrible liar.”
“And you were always afraid of Ben.”
His expression tightened.
“Ben was weak.”
“He found everything.”
“He found enough to get himself killed.”
The words hung between us.
“Did you kill him?”
Travis smiled.
“You’re wearing a wire.”
He lifted the phone.
A high electronic squeal filled my earpiece.
The signal died.
“You should have come alone.”
“I did.”
“No. Rachel is in the gray command van three blocks east.”
My blood turned cold.
He knew the exact location.
Travis pressed something on his phone.
A distant explosion shook the air.
Black smoke rose east of us.
I ran.
His laughter followed me.
The command van had not exploded.
A parked construction vehicle beside it had.
The blast shattered windows but caused no serious injuries.
Rachel had already left the van.
She was running toward Building Three.
“Rachel, stop!”
She ignored me.
We entered the maintenance tunnel from opposite sides.
Somewhere ahead, Mason screamed.
Rachel ran faster.
We reached a storage chamber beneath the river wall.
Mason sat tied to a chair.
Pike stood behind him.
Gerald Pike had never left Nashville.
He looked exhausted and desperate.
“Stay back,” he warned.
Rachel stopped.
“You attended my husband’s funeral.”
Pike’s mouth trembled.
“I tried to keep this from happening.”
“You brought Travis into my home.”
“He was supposed to watch you.”
“You mean control me.”
Pike looked toward the tunnel.
“Travis said he would bring the drive.”
“He used you,” I said.
“We all used each other.”
“Let Mason go.”
Pike shook his head.
“If I release him, Colin kills me.”
A figure stepped from the darkness behind him.
Deputy Colin Mercer raised his weapon.
“He’s right.”
Rachel moved in front of me.
Colin smiled.
“Both Carter sisters in one room. Travis finally did something useful.”
“Where is Travis?” I asked.
“Leaving the country.”
“He told us you killed Ben.”
Colin’s expression changed.
“He said that?”
“He said Ben got himself killed.”
Pike turned toward Colin.
“You told me it was an accident.”
“It was supposed to be.”
Mason kicked the chair backward.
It struck Pike’s knees.
Pike fell.
Rachel lunged forward and pulled Mason away.
Colin raised his weapon.
Before he could fire, a voice thundered through the tunnel.
“Drop it!”
Sergeant Collins stood behind him with three tactical officers.
Colin turned.
Collins tackled his arm aside as officers rushed forward.
The weapon discharged into the ceiling.
Concrete dust filled the chamber.
I shielded Rachel and Mason.
When the air cleared, Colin was in handcuffs.
Pike sat against the wall, weeping.
Mason clung to his mother.
Elena entered the tunnel.
She looked at me with fury and relief.
“Where is Travis?”
I turned toward the far exit.
Gone.
Again.
But Mason pulled something from his pocket.
A black phone.
“I took it from him before he left.”
The screen displayed a live map.
A blinking dot moved south along the river.
May you like
Travis had been tracking Colin.
Now the same device was leading us directly to him.
